Outstanding hustling defense by the bigs along with some opportunistic scoring.

Backcourt: B

Walt Lemon followed a pitiful half with a good one, f...

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Braves report card

Frontcourt: A-

Outstanding hustling defense by the bigs along with some opportunistic scoring.

Backcourt: B

Walt Lemon followed a pitiful half with a good one, finishing with 16 points and 5 steals. Ka'Darryl Bell also had 3 steals as Loyola committed 23 turnovers.

Bench: B

Contributions came from Bell and centers Jordan Prosser and Chris Blake.

Overall: B+

Playing the kind of suffocating defense they did despite producing a mostly anemic offense was a great sign for a 12-17 team this late in the season. Wichita State should get the Braves' best shot on Tuesday.

But BU forward Auston Barnes opened the second half with seven consecutive points to clear the smoke for the Braves en route to a 55-38 Missouri Valley Conference win over Loyola before a season-best crowd of 8,931.

“At halftime, I was a little frustrated,” Barnes said. “I didn’t put up a shot. I was too willing to give the ball up. I needed to be more aggressive.”

While Barnes’ flourish gave the Braves (12-17, 7-9) the cushion they needed, it was the continued excellence of the BU defense that smothered the Ramblers, who shot a season-low 27 percent from the field and committed 23 turnovers.

The 38 Loyola points were the fewest by a Bradley opponent since a 76-35 whipping of Oakland in December, 1997. It was the lowest output by a Valley foe vs. BU since a 53-36 defeat of Indiana State in February, 1993.

“The key to the game was our ability to guard ball screens,” said BU men’s basketball coach Geno Ford. “We were fantastic. Our bigs worked extremely hard after the trap to sprint to the rim. They didn’t play at their best level, but we defended a team that is very effective offensively. I’m thrilled to death we guarded like that.”

In the first half, Loyola limited the Braves to 26 percent shooting as BU held a slim 19-17 lead at intermission.

“I didn’t think our poor offense dictated our defense,” said LU coach Porter Moser. “I thought we played really good defense the first half. They gave us a punch in the mouth with Barnes’ seven straight. We never recovered from that 7-0 run.

“Give Bradley credit. Their bigs were as physical as we’ve seen all year. They were physical in the post and on our guards.”

Barnes hit the Braves’ first 3-pointer on their first possession of the second half. Then he scored in the post on a nifty pass from Tyshon Pickett followed by a baseline jumper.

Loyola (9-19, 4-12) responded with three quick points to pull to within 26-20. But Walt Lemon, who was 1-for-10 in the first half, followed with five points, a steal and outlet pass to Pickett, whose runout slam staked BU to a 33-20 advantage.

“That’s as bad as I’ve ever seen Walt in the first half,” Ford said. “He struggled to make shots, he overdrove it. But in the second half he got himself going.”

Lemon’s last basket at 9:30 was one of the most dazzling of his career. He stole the ball at midcourt and streaked to a double-pump, behind-the-head dunk that extended the BU lead to 20 points.

Page 2 of 2 - The visitors would draw no closer than 15 the rest of the way.

“The whole first half we kept getting stops and kept getting excited about the defensive end,” Ford said. “That was great to see. We really fed off the defense and then shot 52 percent in the second half.”

Former Manual star Jeff White, Loyola’s starting point guard, was playing his first college game in his hometown. He had a rough night, going 2-for-8 from the field with six turnovers and just one assist.

“I was happy to come back home to play,” he said. “I came out a little too excited and had some bad turnovers, which affected me.”

Bradley now has two days to prepare for the nation’s only unbeaten Division I team, third-ranked Wichita State.

“It’s definitely exciting,” Barnes said. “We have nothing to lose. Everybody’s geeked up about it. We wanted today to be something to build on going into it. We need to play some defense to give them a run.”

Braves briefs: During a halftime ceremony, baseball great Wyman Carey, women’s golfer Kelly Dillon, soccer all-American Tim Regan and the 1998 soccer team were inducted into the Bradley athletics Hall of Fame.

Dave Reynolds can be reached at 686-3210 or dreynolds@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @davereynolds2.